It has become common practice to provide brassieres, slips, other items of underwear or lingerie and swimsuits with decorative garment links which are generally disposed between two straps and facilitate adjustment of the garment to the wearer. In general, such a garment link which may or may not be separable and can also form a catch, comprises two loops which are molded in a single piece or on respective parts of the catch, and can be disposed on opposite sides of a region which can carry some type of decoration.
In a so-called jeweled garment link, that decoration may be one or more diamond-simulating stones, more or less facetted, which are anchored in the link.
For the most part, such stones have projected well above the body in which they were anchored. In one prior art construction, the stones were seated within an apron which extended upwardly only around a base of the stone with a substantial portion of the stone projecting above the surrounding wall of the seat. The seat could be provided as part of a stud, a pin or which could be fitted into a hole in the central portion of the garment link and fused or otherwise anchored in place.
Garment links of this construction had the drawback that the stone could snag on other garments of the wearer or during dressing, damaging finer garments or resulting in damage to the link if the stone could be pulled out by the snagging action.
The earlier garment link allowed accumulation of lint or dirt as well.